Netherlands-based Giga Storage has been granted an irrevocable permit to build the 600 MW/2,400 MWh BESS project in Belgium, known as GIGA Green Turtle. This milestone ensures that financing can be arranged for the project, which will be the largest in Europe.

The project site will be located in Dilsen-Stokkem in eastern Belgium, next to a new 380 kV high voltage station operated by transmission system operator Elia, on the high voltage line from Van Eyck to Gramme.

The electric pool park will be built in an industrial area on the site of a former zinc factory. Before Giga Storage bought the land from the owner of the zinc plant, another energy company planned to build a pond on the site.

The project will be equipped with 20 batteries, each equipped with an inverter, 185 medium voltage transformers and five high voltage transformers, with a total capacity of 1,500 MVA, and 25,650 square meters of planting area around the new battery park. The developers say GIGA Green Turtle will store the average annual energy consumption of 330,000 homes and feed it back into the grid.

The project is expected to start construction in 2025 and be completed in 2028. According to the developer, the system will play a key role in the energy transition of Belgium and Europe.

"By developing utility-scale storage projects in strategic locations, energy prices will become more stable, which will reduce our dependence on (fossil) energy imports." GIGA storage CEO Ruud Nijs said when the project was first announced in January, "While this project will be the largest battery project in Europe, more storage capacity will be required in the coming years."

Giga Storage said it aims to deliver 5 GW of BESS projects in Europe by 2030. BESS projects such as 300 MW/1,200 MWh in the Delfzijl region in the Netherlands are already under development, and the company expects to announce more projects across Europe in the coming years.

The Dutch developer has previously delivered a 12 MW/7.5 MWh battery project in the Netherlands in 2020, followed by another 25 MW/48 MWh system in 2022. According to its website, Giga Storage has another project in the pipeline, a 300 MW battery campus near the Van Eyck High voltage station in Kinrooi, just 15 km from the site of the Giga Green Turtle project. Editor/Xu Shengpeng